Page 76 of Beyond our Forever

“Yes,” I whisper, taking his hand, grateful.

Stupid Mikel still has the nerve to ask if it’s what I want. Of course it is, asshole, he makes me want to scream, but the words can’t get out of my lips, my tongue is a piece of dry and stiff cotton.

Bruce pulls me so hard that I lose my balance. Despite his rage, he turns to take me in his arms and strides to get me out of that house that seems to me like a real dungeon. “What happened last night?” he asks as soon as we reach the spot where his car is parked.

Suddenly, suddenly, everything comes back to me. No, not what happened after I agreed to have that last drink with Mikel and Emilia, but the reason for all that.

“If we’re going to start the accusations, then I should also know what the hell you were doing on Thursday.”

He looks at me, not knowing for sure what I am referring to.

“Don’t make that face, Emilia showed me the photos,” I explain in a dangerously sweet tone. “Bad luck she was in the same restaurant as you and your friend.”

Despite being greener than the Hulk and in a worse mood, like a gentleman Bruce helps me get into the car. The short drive home is more than uncomfortable, it’s that deafening silence that precedes the explosion. Because I’m sure here it comes.

I look at my reflection in the rearview mirror, I really feel sorry for myself. Is that purple on my cheekbone a punch? God, what happened to my mouth? Why do I have a cut on my lip?

As soon as we reach our driveway, he gets out and turns around to help me do the same. Taking me by the arm, he guides me to the shed, yes, here comes the bombardment. He is just taking me away from the house, and from the children, to detonate.

My legs are long and, after the training that has meant running after three restless children, they’re agile too, but I can barely keep up with Bruce, who drags me furiously, like a caveman to the cave. And without heels, I left those in the house.

“Did you sleep with that guy?” He lets go before he even bothers to close the door.

I stare at him with my mouth open, he has the courage to ask me that, having more miracles under his belt than me.

He who is without sin cast the first stone, is not that what they say?

“What are you coming to demand of me? You’ve been doing it for months with this Angelique. At least I haven’t lied to you, Bruce, I’ve never lied to you.”

“Where do you get that shit?” he replies with fire coming out of his eyes.

True fire, yes, like Cyclops from the X-men.

Snort, I swear I snort, before I could reply, “You’re a bastard, I saw the photos last night. Emilia showed them to me.”

“There can be no photos, Emilia lied to you,” he adds.

“Why can’t there be?” I challenge him. “You were not careful, Bruce, you took her to a place where anyone could have seen you, not just my friend.”

“That woman is not your friend,” he grumbles, here comes the Hulk on steroids. “And there can be no photos, simply because there is nothing to prove, there is nothing between Angelique and me. Nothing!”

“You’re a fucking bastard!” More than that, a liar.

The nausea returns, with such force that I almost vomit on his feet. Bruce takes my arm, helping me to stabilize myself, to regain the balance I have lost. Hopefully getting everything back in order was as easy as straightening my body.

“Let go!” I yell at him as soon as I’ve got my feet to hold me. “Never again dare you lay a finger on me.”

He looks at me in horror, raising his eyebrows and opening his arms.

“For what? For you to go with that son of a bitch? Is that what you want? Tell me, Ilythia, tell me. Is that what you really want?”

“What the fuck is going on here?” another voice yells from the door.

I close my eyes, begging the heaven this is another twist of this damn nightmare and that, as the saying goes, it gets darker just before dawn. Or to wake up, in this case.

“What are you doing here?” I ask my brother, who looks at both of us in a mixture of disbelief and rage.

“What am I doing here?” he answers with another question. “I wish I had come earlier, what’s going on, Ilythia?”

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